Page 7 - profiles 2019 working copy containing all bios as of Feb 20 final version

that made recommendations to the White House about what agricultural goods
to export to what country at what time. We were able to help people from

other countries get healthy foods to feed their families. I really enjoyed my
job and I wish I had the opportunity to work there longer. My husband has
been working at the United States Department of Energy for almost thirty
years in information technology. He is able to help keep our nation’s computer
systems from getting viruses and protect us from being hacked.

I am Diane Schuble and I began my federal career in 1978 as a summer

intern for the Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Land and Water
Resources in Washington, D.C. After earning my Bachelor’s in biology, I
worked as a Plant Protection Aide for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) at John F. Kennedy

International Airport in New York. A variety of agricultural products arrive
daily from around the world and I wanted to help protect America’s
agricultural and natural resources from the inadvertent introduction of invasive

pests.

I was then hired as a journeyman Plant Protection and Quarantine Officer,

working alongside U.S. Customs in the inspection of passengers arriving from
other countries, as well as reviewing cargo manifests to hold items of potential
agricultural risk for inspection. I often seized contraband containing
agricultural pests. I identified many pests prior to submission to a specialist

and earned the authority to identify 65 different organisms including insects,
snails, mites, bacteria and fungi.

Five years later, I started a family and became the first officer to be permitted
to return in part-time status, a family work-life groundbreaker. I returned
full-time as a technical expert and became a certified field trainer and then a

supervisor. I headed a unit in the newly constructed Terminal One, which
became operational before construction was complete. Before our office was
fully completed, my team was selected to pilot new X-ray technology that
could differentiate organic and non-organic material, to make our inspections

more efficient. It was during my time leading the USDA staff at Terminal One
that the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11. We left only after
clearing the last flight to arrive before all aircraft were grounded.

In 2002, I transferred to a USDA office in Amityville, New York, engaged in
the eradication of an invasive pest, the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB). I

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